Buffy remake: Sarah Michelle Gellar shares new details, revealing Buffy revival was years in the making
Sarah Michelle Gellar has shared the behind-the-scenes of journey of how the Buffy the Vampire Slayer almost-revival came about.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that US streamer Hulu was close to greenlighting the pilot for a Buffy series in which Gellar will reprise her role as the vampire slayer. The character is not expected to be the focus but will have a supporting role.
In an Instagram post, Gellar detailed how producer Gail Berman called her three years ago and asked Gellar to take a meeting with Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“I was blown away that Chloe even knew who I was,” Gellar wrote. “But, as I’ve always done, I told Gail that I just didn’t see a way for the show to exist again. We’d always been aligned on that but this time, I heard something different in her voice.”
What was meant to be a 20-minute coffee with Zhao turned into a “four-hour adventure”.
“We laughed, we cried but mostly we both talked about how much this show means to us.”
Nothing had firmed at the time and over the next few years, the revival team grew, adding writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman.
“I have always listened to the fans and heard your desire to revisit Buffy and her world,” Gellar continued. “But it was not something I could do unless I was sure we would get it right.
“This has been a long process and it’s not over yet. I promise you, we will only make this show if we know we can do it right. And I will tell you that we are on the path there.”
It’s not the first time she’s reprised a character years after the fact. In 2016, Gellar shot a pilot for a Cruel Intentions TV continuation, set 17 years after the 1999 film.
She came back as the conniving Kathryn Merteuil, whose life is upended when Dash, the son of her late stepbrother Sebastian and Annette, discovers his family history through his father’s journal.
After Kathryn was publicly shamed for sexual promiscuity (remember, the film was released in the late-1990s) and cocaine addiction, the TV pilot has her supposedly reformed as an upstanding pillar of the community again.
But, by the end of the episode, Kathryn is revealed to be the same as she ever was. She is having an affair with her chief-of-staff and her drug habit is alive and well. Rather than hiding her coke stash in a crucifix necklace, it’s now in a secret compartment in a massive, mirrored cross.
She also seems to have retained her sexual attraction to Sebastian.
Reese Witherspoon did not come back for the project and the role of Annette was recast with Kate Levering. Clips and photos of Ryan Phillippe, whose character died at the end of the film, were used during the production.
The pilot also cast Peter Gallagher (The OC, While You Were Sleeping) as the Valmont patriarch who controls the family empire.
While the series died at the pilot stage and was never aired, there are several rogue clips on YouTube.
In 2022, Gellar said in an interview she was “grateful” the pilot hadn’t been picked up for a full series order. She felt it wasn’t suited as a network show (NBC, the American broadcaster which commissioned the pilot obviously felt the same) and that it would work better as a streaming series.
Cruel Intentions was rebooted with a new story, characters and cast in 2024 for streamer Prime Video.
